Chuck vs The JackOLantern
by mia2009
Summary: Some Charah holiday fluff. Enough said.


**A/N: I am reposting this from last year for anyone new who may not have had the chance to read it. For those of you who have read it before, I did revamp it a little bit. **

**It is a short little Halloween one shot. Purely Charah fluff. It takes place in season 4 shortly after Sarah has moved in with Chuck.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, don't sue me.**

_**Chuck vs. the Jack-o-lantern**_

Sarah glanced at her watch as she made her way into the kitchen. It was already after seven. Chuck had left after dinner, telling her he just had to run out to pick something up but refused to tell her what. All he would say was that it was a surprise.

Sarah grabbed two wine glasses from the cupboard anticipating his return. She proceeded to open her newly purchased bottle of Merlot and poured herself a glass full and took a sip. She was just about to make her way back into the living room to curl up on the couch and look for a good movie on TV when she heard the scuffing at the door and the fumbling with the door handle.

"Chuck?" she called out making her way to the door.

"Sarah grab the door would ya?" He called out to her from the other side.

Sarah moved quickly towards the door. She opened it and was greeted by her boyfriend who stood before her holding two great big pumpkins in his hands.

"Chuck? What is all this?" She asked as Chuck made his way past her and headed towards the table where he rid his arms of the large pumpkins.

"They're pumpkins Sarah."

"Yes Chuck, I realize that they are pumpkins, but why do you have them?" She asked.

"It's your surprise!"

"My surprise?" She questioned. "You surprised with two big orange vegetables?"

"Actually Sarah, although pumpkins are members of the squash family and they are treated like vegetables, they are technically a fruit."

"What?" She looked at him like he had two heads.

"Yeah, lots of people probably don't know this, but because pumpkins grow on vines and have seeds they are ultimately a fruit." He continued.

Sarah Chuckled. Of all the conversations she could have imagined to be having with her boyfriend tonight this one didn't even come close to making the list. She gave her head a shake, "Okay Chuck, but why do we have pumpkins? Are you going to make a pie or something, cuz we can just buy one."

Chuck laughed. "No, they're not for a pie. These aren't even pie pumpkins."

Sarah gave him that look again. Of course Chuck would know what kind of pumpkins you need to make a pie with.

"No, these are Jack-o-lantern pumpkins. I thought with Halloween coming up and the fact that we didn't have to work tonight, it might be fun for us to stay in and carve pumpkins." Chuck smiled, nearly on the verge of giddiness.

"Carve pumpkins?"

"Yeah, you know make jack-o-lanterns."

"But…" She started.

Chuck looked at her confused.

"What?" he asked her. His face turned to a frown when she didn't answer right away. "You think it's stupid?"

"What?…No…No…It's just….Well….I've never carved a pumpkin before." She finally admitted. "I don't… know how."

"What?"

Sarah turned away embarrassed and made her way back into the kitchen and grabbed her glass of wine off the counter and proceeded to take another swig.

Chuck followed her into the kitchen. "Sarah."

She looked up at him over the rim of her wine glass. Chuck reached out and took the glass from her and set it back down on the counter.

"You've really never done this?" he asked.

Sarah shook her head no. "Chuck, my dad wasn't exactly the pumpkin carving type."

Chuck moved in closer and wrapped his arms around her waist pulling her into him.

"Well lucky for you, I am the pumpkin carving type and I cannot wait to show you how to do this. Besides Sarah, it's fun."

Sarah wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Are you sure that's what you want to do tonight?" She leaned in and began trailing kisses down his neck. "You know…it's…not…that often…we…get…a….quiet evening…at…home…I have…a...few…fun ideas…of my own." She said between kisses.

"MMmmm…..Absolutely!" He pulled away from her, grabbed her hand and pulled her back into the dining room and over to the table where the pumpkins sat. "Tonight Sarah Walker, I am showing you how to carve a pumpkin." he flashed her a smile.

* * *

Chuck went to work cutting the top of Sarah's pumpkin to open it up.

"Honey can you grab a bowl from the kitchen?" He asked.

Sarah made her way back to the kitchen to retrieve a bowl.

"Is this good?" she asked holding up a medium sized mixing bowl.

"That's perfect."

Sarah brought the bowl over to him and placed it on the table.

"What's the bowl for?" She asked taking a seat at the table.

"That is for all seeds. We clean off the seeds and let them dry and then we can roast them. They're delicious."

"Really?" she asked.

"Yup."

Chuck pulled off the top of Sarah's pumpkin. "See how when I cut around the top I made this little groove in the back?" he pointed out the little tab to her.

"Yeah." She replied.

"That's so when you go to put the lid back on, it will latch to the pumpkin and stay in place. It just makes it easier to put the top in place."

"Okay."

"So, for this next part, you're going to want to roll up those sleeves."

Sarah looked at him unsure, but being the good sport that she is, she rolled her sleeves as far as she could. "Okay, now what?" She asked.

"Now is the fun part. The getting dirty part."

Sarah raised an eyebrow at him. "And I thought you wanted to carve pumpkins?" she asked.

Chuck laughed, "You get to clean all that out." he pointed to the pumpkin guts and seeds inside the pumpkin. "Separate the seeds from the pumpkin guts. Seeds go in the bowl, guts go in the garbage."

"Seriously? I have to reach in there and pull that all out?"

"Mmmhhhmm."

Sarah hesitantly reached her hand inside the pumpkin and grabbed a handful, making a face at first. "So this is supposed to be fun?" She asked.

"Yup."

"You know, I have some other ideas of ways we can have some fun tonight." Sarah leaned into him, allowing her hot breath to tickle his neck. She reached up with her hand and smeared some pumpkin guts on his nose.

Chuck reached out and intercepted her hand before she could do any more damage. He pulled her close, so that her face was mere inches from his. "Play nice Sarah."

Sarah smiled as she pulled away. Returning her attention to her task, she pulled a handful of the pumpkin guts and seeds out. She picked through it and pulled the seeds from it and placed them in the bowl. Once finished she reached it to retrieve another handful.

Chuck watched her and smiled before turning his attention to his own pumpkin. He quickly went to work cutting the lid for it.

"Mine's empty, now what?" She asked.

Chuck inspected her work. "Pretty good Sarah, now it's time to get creative. You need to look at your canvas and envision your work of art. Once you have it in your head, you can either trace it on there with a pencil, or for those who are a whiz with a knife, like I know you are, you can go freestyle with it and hope for the best."

"Wait… isn't there like patterns you're supposed to use or something?"

"Sarah…Bartowski's do not use patterns."

"Well, I'm not a Bartowski Chuck."

"Not yet." the words came barely audible.

"What was that?" she asked.

"Sarah, really honey, you don't need a pattern. Your pattern is all in your head. Just take a minute and think about it."

Sarah sat and contemplated her next move. She had an idea in her head but was resistant; she hesitated with the knife, which didn't go unnoticed by Chuck.

"Sarah you're over thinking it, it's just a pumpkin, have fun with it."

She took a deep breath and without another thought she went to work with the knife. Chuck simultaneously worked on his own jack-o-lantern.

* * *

Twenty minutes later Chuck set down his knife. "Well I think mine is done." he announced. How are you doing?" He asked.

Sarah set down her own knife. "Okay I think. How does it look?" Sarah turned her pumpkin around to show him, revealing probably the best freehand pumpkin carving he had ever seen.

Chuck's face lit up. "Oh my God, Sarah, you did great! You've really never done this before?"

She shook her head no. "Let's see yours?"

Chuck looked down at his pumpkin and suddenly felt very embarrassed.

"Oh, well…" he started.

"What?" she smiled. "Oh, come on…this was your idea….let me see."

"Fine." Chuck turned his pumpkin around to show her.

"Oh, Chuck it's adorable." She smiled at him.

His eyes darted back and forth between his own juvenile, goofy faced jack-o-lantern to Sarah's sophisticated, frightening faced jack-o-lantern that looked like it was done by a master carver as opposed to novice that she really was.

"Wow Sarah! That's….that's…just incredible."

"Really? You like it?" She was beaming.

He laughed at her excitement.

"It's great." Chuck stood up and made his way into the kitchen and emerged seconds later with two candles and a lighter.

"Now for the finishing touches." He placed the candles inside the pumpkins and proceeded to light them. "Grab the lights Sarah."

Sarah made her way over to the light switch and turned them off. She came up next to Chuck and snaked her arms around his waist. He wrapped his arm around her in return and pulled her close taking in the sight of their masterpieces in front of them.

"Wow, they do look pretty good…I have to admit, this was fun Chuck."

"Yeah?" he asked.

Sarah nodded. "Mmmhmmm."

Chuck turned and placed his hands on her waist. "So…you were saying earlier…something about some other kind of fun?" His gaze fell to her lips and she smiled up at him. Leaning in she met his lips with hers.

"I love you Chuck."

"And I love you."

Her lips returned to his neck and she toyed at the buttons on his shirt. "Thank you for this…I really did have fun." She said.

Chuck's hand moved to her chin, lifting it up so her eyes met his again.

"The fun is just beginning Sarah." and in one swift motion, he hoisted her up in his arms.

"Whoa!" Sarah laughed as she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. She sought out his lips with hers once again as Chuck carried her towards the bedroom.

* * *

**Alright, I hope you all enjoyed this, thanks for reading, feel free to leave a review.**


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